Riverside Park

Manhattan’s District 14 Is The Cleanest!

Photo by Daniel Avila

At the Best of Parks awards ceremony, District 14 in Manhattan was honored with the Cleanest District Award.

District 14 stretches across six miles of Manhattan’s West Side, covering 400 acres of waterfront, woodlands, playgrounds, and athletic fields. The Hudson River Greenway cuts through it, bringing visitors from around the region, while some 200,000 people live a short walk from the park and consider it their backyard.

The district includes Riverside Park South, Riverside Park, and the busier half of Fort Washington Park, and is home to Grants’ Tomb, the Little Red Lighthouse, the Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument, the Firemen’s Memorial, and many other City Beautiful Era monuments. A summer-long series of programs and special events and three popular cafés help attract millions of visitors.

October marked the 70th anniversary of the park’s expansion under Commissioner Robert Moses and, in the spirit of Moses, there is currently $40 million in capital construction underway, and an astounding $140 million more is expected over the next six years.

The Cleanest District Award is for daily maintenance. Despite its heavy use, the district achieved 100% cleanliness ratings in the last year. The district is divided into three sectors, each the responsibility of a park supervisor. These sectors are subdivided into zones, and cared for by a combination of fixed post and mobile staff who have responsibility for all aspects of year-round park maintenance.

District-wide staff complete two daily packer runs – one early, one late – and also battle the nightly onslaught of graffiti. Maintenance workers and gardeners help keep the park in good repair and attractive. Sector supervisors have raised the bar with daily on-the-ground inspections and rapid response, and encouraging pride of ownership among the staff. They have defeated a number of seemingly intractable problems such as homeless encampments, vandalism, and graffiti through strategic blitz operations and maintaining a persistent presence to establish and retain control.

This summer, a roving late crew and night supervisors carried on the work of the day shift and addressed conditions that arose during the park’s hours of heaviest use. This extra capacity contributed directly to the park’s high cleanliness ratings this year.

The effort is supported by the Riverside Park Fund, whose volunteers last year performed 38,000 hours of horticulture and other work. The Fund also provides extra supplies, equipment and strategic support to enable the district’s hard working and dedicated staff to go the extra mile.

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Riverside Park

The northernmost A-dock at the 79th Street Boat Basin is currently closed to public access for structural enhancements. The dock will be further supported with non-wood pilings and a new wave screen.Anticipated Completion: Spring 2016